GMAC to Depend Less on Auto Loans

General Motors Corp., which earns more money making loans than building cars and trucks, expects less profit this year than in 2004 from auto loans and more from mortgages, an executive of its finance unit said Tuesday.

In a regulatory filing, GM reiterated its forecast of a $2.5-billion total profit this year from General Motors Acceptance Corp. GMAC will pay the automaker a dividend in excess of $2 billion, according to a slide presentation by Sanjiv Khattri, the unit’s chief financial officer, to investors in Amsterdam that was available on the company’s Web site.

“Their estimate might be a little conservative,” said analyst David Healy at New York-based Burnham Securities Inc., who expects GMAC to earn closer to $3 billion this year. “I see no reason that they won’t do as well the rest of the year as they did in the first quarter.”

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